Petition to Ken Murphy, Tesco's CEO
Dear Ken Murphy,
Every year millions of chickens are forced to endure immense suffering on farms operated my known Tesco suppliers. The breeds of chickens raised on these farms grow so unnaturally big and fast that their organs and legs simply cannot cope with the strain of their enormous bodies. This results in birds dying from heart attacks, while others become unable to walk and suffer a slow, painful death due to dehydration or starvation.
In late 2019 Animal Equality investigators captured shocking footage on four British Moy Park farms based in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire; all four farms are Red Tractor-certified and appear to have been audited by Integra Food Secure – a third party auditor contracted by Tesco at the time. The harrowing scenes show a significant number of small chicks who had their necks crushed and suffered agonising deaths at just a few days old, simply because they were too weak or were deemed too small to be profitable.
The chickens on these farms are packed into sheds of 30,000 birds or more. Each bird has as little space as an A4 piece of paper; they barely have room to move around. Many struggle to spread their wings or carry out other natural behaviours such as perching and dust bathing.
Do these practices really align with Tesco’s values?
Your competitors - Waitrose and M&S - as well as a number of large multinational corporations such as KFC, Nestlé and Unilever have all responded to consumer demand for issues like these to be phased out by signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment. You too have the rare opportunity to significantly reduce the suffering of millions of animals every single year. I urge you to realise the severity of this issue and join these companies in signing Tesco up to the Better Chicken Commitment as a matter of urgency.
Yours sincerely,
(Name)